A substrate processing apparatus is a complex device capable of performing a series of processing operations including operations of polishing, cleaning, and drying a substrate, such as a wafer. Such a substrate processing apparatus is constituted by a variety of processing units including polishing units, cleaning units, drying units, transporting units, etc. These processing units are assembled together in a manufacturing factory that, manufactures substrate processing apparatus. Before a substrate processing apparatus is shipped from the manufacturing factory, operations of each of the processing units thereof are adjusted in order to ensure that the substrate processing apparatus works properly in its entirety.
It is important for a manufacturer of a substrate processing apparatus to ship the substrate processing apparatus to a customer promptly after the manufacturer has received an order from the customer. After the shipment, it is also important to adjust operations of the substrate processing apparatus in a customer's facility so that the substrate processing apparatus can start working immediately. Further, in order to make a downtime of the substrate processing apparatus as short as possible, it is also necessary to reduce a time of maintenance that is to be carried out periodically.
However, since the substrate processing apparatus is an assembly of multiple processing units, it takes a considerable time to adjust the operations of the substrate processing apparatus before and after the shipment from the manufacturer. Furthermore, it takes a long time to carry out the periodic maintenance of the substrate processing apparatus. This is because the substrate processing apparatus is equipped with only a single adjusting device. Specifically, since the adjusting device is capable of adjusting only one processing unit at a time, it takes a long period of time to complete the adjustment of all the processing units. In particular, a longer period of time is required for adjustment of a state-of-the-art substrate processing apparatus, because there are a lot of items to be adjusted for achieving a high throughput.